With their Web server down, contributors to the campus newspaper the Collegiate Times filed blog entries on their parent company's Web site beginning at 9:47 a.m. as they attempted to confirm information about two Monday morning university shootings, which left at least 22 people dead and many more injured. ABC reported 29 dead by Monday afternoon.

According to the student newspaper's blog, 20 students died in Norris Hall, a 72,375-square-foot building that houses the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics. The department focuses on materials, material systems, biomechanics, and computational methods, among other subjects.

Students and faculty communicated with each other during the crisis through instant messaging and e-mail. A student captured the sound of several gunshots on campus.

By the afternoon, the university had posted a podcast of statements from its president, Charles Steger. He said police were investigating the first shooting when they received reports of a second shooting. He said the school was shocked and horrified by a tragedy of "monumental proportions." He also said he felt a great personal loss.

So the launching of Twitter provides a good alternative considering that the use of mobile phones is much higher than that of computers. In Malawi for example, there are about 50,000 Internet users against about 700,000 mobile phone users out of a population of about 12 million. Twitter allows users to post a small update via SMS, instant messaging client and the web. Anyone who chooses to follow you will get that update on the Twitter home page, or their mobile phone of they choose to. Unlike most mobile phone web services, you can update via SMS from anywhere in the world and from virtually any handset.

Although Twitter was designed to let users announce what they're doing at the time of posting, we have already seen other uses coming up. The train system in San Fransisco (BART) uses Twitter to announce changes in schedules; conference participants use it to post notes of the sessions at the conference and there are updates from news companies like BBC via Twitter.

ChatWithAStar.com is the premier destination for fans to get up close and personal with athletes and entertainers through online interactive chats. The chatwithastar.com website features weblogs and interactive chats by celebrities, beginning with current and former professional athletes, to enable them to tell their stories "in their own words" and interact more intimately with fans.

In addition to chats, www.chatwithastar.com features trivia contests and memorabilia auctions. Among the initial celebrities featured on www.chatwithastar.com are: Billy Wagner of the New York Mets; NFL veteran Kevin Mawae, who has just signed with the Tennessee Titans; New York Yankees announcer John Sterling; Andy North, former pro golfer and commentator for ESPN; boxer Gerry "King of the Left Hook" Cooney; and Pittsburgh Pirate Hall of Fame player and Hall of Fame broadcaster for the New York Mets, Ralph Kiner.

Funding came from Avalong Ventures and Masthead Venture Partners. Intercasting is developing location-based services, and will use the capital to fund business growth, product development, and marketing. The company's initial mobile service is Rabble, a blogging/social networking application that connects users using mobile phones. The company's application is currently available to Verizon Wireless mobile customers.

The next wave in blogging - the mobile handset - is turning phone-wielding celebrity chasers into bona fide paparazzi.

Since Hutchison launched mobile blogging services at its British operations last month, star-struck 3G users have discovered a new pastime: the candid celebrity photo.

"Our customers are embracing the chance to become paparazzi, sharing images and clips of celebrities straightaway, well before paparazzi photos appear in the papers," said 3 UK marketing director Graeme Oxby.

You walk into a Chinese restaurant and your phone buzzes. It's a blog post from a friend with a simple message: Avoid the duck. This is one vision of future blogging from Qualcomm CEO-elect Paul Jacobs, who just stopped by our office. (He's the one on the left in the photo).

This new type of posting is linked to a certain location. It's called a Crunkie. The idea is that you can leave location-based posts in certain places for your friends. And they pop up when your friends appear.

"Wherever you are, you can stop and take a picture, you can blog. It's the convergence of all the devices,'' said Walker. ``Blogging presents another platform where they're all meeting. You have the PC, and you've got your phone. Different tools you can use online that you can use anywhere you are."